Strangers
by annethewordbender
Summary: This is a sort of dark fic about Zuko and Katara's relationship in the palace. Future. Based off of Hillary Duff's song Stranger.


I Do NOT own Avatar! (I totally wish I did though! lol)

Stranger

Based off of the song _Stranger_ by Hillary Duff

_Nobody believes me when I tell them that you're out of your mind!  
Nobody believes me when I tell them that there's so much you hide  
You treat me like a queen when we go out,  
Wanna show everyone what our love's about  
All wrapped up in me whenever there is a crowd…_

_  
_ She loved the majesty of the banquet hall. It was huge and usually filled with laughter; especially during feasts and water and fire training for the twins. It was a place where Katara loved to be, not just because it was always somehow comforting, but also because he couldn't touch her there. He always looked for her here or in the gardens when he wanted to find her. She hated being this predictable, but he forbad her to go to the servants or go in to town. She sometimes played Pi-Sho with his uncle General Iroh. She had fun with him, but she hated lying to him about how she was doing so she made her visits sparser and sparser. Tonight was the feast in honor of her daughter, Mia, becoming a master waterbender. She was going to perform with her daughter who was the most like her mother. The twins, Zeke and Mia, were as different as night and day which made sense because Mia was a waterbender, and Zeke was a firebender.

Zeke was the most like his father with the temper and had dark hair, which turned a dark brown in the summer and hazel eyes. He was also very arrogant which disappointed Katara, she had tried to keep in check for all of his 13 years but so far it had failed miserably with some help from his father.

Mia on the other hand looked almost exactly like her mother except her chestnut hair that turned black during the winter. She had a nasty temper, but tried to keep it in check. Usually she was the nicest person, except for her mother, at any party the Fire Lord could throw and that was saying something. She loved to travel but never got to really go anywhere except Ember Island and that was only one time a summer. She had a big ceremony for becoming a master waterbender. Her brother was not yet a master and she was proud to get some thing before him for once. He got everything 'cause he was the Fire Lord's favorite. She had mother though and was commit treason tonight against the Fire Lord, for her mother's sake. All of her friends hated her now because of her being a master waterbender, so she had nothing left to loose. In this twisted history of her mother and father she was ok with the plan.

Katara felt safe with people because if anything happened to her, she would have witnesses to the event. The bedroom scared her because there was no one else. No one else to protect her, no one to help her, no one to understand her, she was all alone. This took months of planning and convincing to get the Fire Lord to hold the ceremony on the full moon. She was confident about the plan.

…_But when no ones around  
There's no kindness in your eyes  
The way you look at me, it's just not right  
I can tell what's going on this time  
There's a stranger in my life  
You're not the person that I once knew  
Are you scared to let them know it's you?  
If they could only see you like I do  
Then they would see a stranger too…_

She hurried to get dressed because she didn't want to displease the Fire Lord. If she was late for anything, afterwards he would always beat her, but it would never leave a mark. She was so nervous that she jumped when she heard a knock at the door. She looked anxiously at the door as it opened, hoping that it wasn't him. The door swung open to reveal, not the Fire Lord, but Mia. She looked very serious, like someone preparing for battle. She came in telling Katara that it would be fine and started to help get her ready for their performance tonight. The door suddenly swung open and the Fire Lord stood in the doorway with a woman on his arm.

_Did I ever do anything that was this cruel to you?  
Did I ever make you wonder who was standing in the room?  
You made yourself look perfect in everyway  
So when this goes down, I'm the one that will be blamed  
Your plan is working so you can just walk away  
Baby your secret's safe_

Katara put the finishing touches on her hair and bowed to the Fire Lord. Mia bowed also but when she came up her makeup was running down her cheeks. She started yelling at her father, about being faithful and Katara tried to quiet her but it didn't work. Katara noticed the Fire Lord's hands starting to steam and she pulled Mia out of the room as fast as she could. She also told Mia never to speak to her father that way, not out of respect but out of fear.

_There's no kindness in your eyes  
The way you look at me, it's just not right  
I can tell what's going on this time  
There's a stranger in my life  
You're not the person that I once knew  
Are you scared to let 'em know it's you?  
If they could only see you like I do  
Then they would see a stranger too_

Mia's last glance at her father as she was pulled out of the room was a surprising coolness, which contained no love or care, in his eyes that was always there after mother had fled the room in the night. And now, that coolness was directed at her also. She was surprised that her father had that in him. Now that she knew what her mother went through, she was amazed that she had put up with it for so long. And she felt like she didn't know her father at all. That last glance, she got of her father scared her and made her feel like she was an alien to him.

_Such a long way back, from this place we're at  
When I think of all the time I've wasted, I could cry_

Katara was in Mia's room putting her makeup back on and thinking about how she should have left him years ago, but she couldn't because she didn't know what would have happened to Mia if she left.

_There's no kindness in your eyes  
The way you look at me, it's just not right  
I can tell what's going on this time  
There's a stranger in my life  
You're not the person that I once knew  
Are you scared to let 'em know it's you?  
If they could only see you like I do  
Then they would see a stranger too_

Katara wondered sometimes if Zeke would care that she left, but the more she thought about it she realized that if anything he would support his father in whatever he did. That was enough to make Katara love Mia even more.

_There's no kindness in your eyes  
The way you look at me, it's just not right  
I can tell what's going on this time  
There's a stranger in my life  
You're not the person I once knew  
Are you scared to let 'em know it's you?_

During the performance the Fire Lord kept staring at Katara with those cruel, heartless eyes just waiting till afterwards to tell her to control her child. When they got back to the royal apartments, the tables turned and Katara used blood bending to not attack her and make him listen. He signed a divorce paper and two throne decline papers stating that Mia and Katara were no longer members of the fire nation or of the royal family. He inquired how they would leave and she told him her Eel-hound. As she was leaving, she said, in a voice that chilled his core, "Don't follow me, Zuko." And she was gone.

I hope you liked it! It was an idea that came to mind while listing to the song.


End file.
